Word Square Thriller Part 4

Question

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

The missing words, in order, make an 8 by 8 word square with the same words going down as across. (Warning: these are not words everyone will know...)

The thugs moved ________, lurching unpredictably like those poor creatures I'd seen in the seaside marketplace, trying to cut off my retreat.

Realising I'd never make it to the gate, I instead began to climb up the scaffolding. It wasn't hard, compared to climbing the ________ of the old-fashioned sailing ships I had so loved as a child.

Behind the scaffolding were finely-crafted ________ supporting the entablature, as though it were an ancient temple built to revere the titans; the embassy must have been built in better economic times, when national pride took precedence over austerity.

“Be sensible,” Gilgamesh shouted up at me. “The Human ________ Project is too valuable for any one corporation to own. One day a human might regrow an entire limb, like an axolotl! We just want our share of the profits! It's for the people!”

Had I been fighting for the wrong side all along? I looked down, imagined myself falling. A chill ran through me, like a ________ blast of wind. I couldn't trust him, not after all I'd seen.

I balanced precariously on a short horizontal timber, securing two upright posts together. (My eidetic memory told me it was an ________, yet another example of why having a good memory is useless in a crisis...)

One of the thugs was climbing up after me. For want of anything to drop on him, I spat on his head.

“Please,” said Gilgamesh. “Act a little ________. We are both civilised men, are we not?”

What should I do? Give up? Destroy the formula, to prevent it falling back into the wrong hands? Try to bring it back to my corporate overlords? I felt like whatever I chose, future historians would judge me in future history books, and the ________ of the present would try me in their essays, and find me wanting...

Answer 1

This one was a lot harder to solve! The solution is:

 C R A B W I S E
 R A T L I N E S
 A T L A N T E S
 B L A S T E M A
 W I N T E R L Y
 I N T E R T I E
 S E E M L I E R
 E S S A Y E R S

What do these words mean?

CRABWISE = sideways;
RATLINES = part of the rigging on a ship;
ATLANTES = plural form of 'Atlas' - an architectural support sculpted in the form of a man, usually in place of a column;
BLASTEMA = a mass of cells capable of growth and regeneration into body parts (much like how an axolotl can);
WINTERLY = occurring in winter (i.e. bitterly cold);
INTERTIE = a horizontal tie between two uprights in a wooden frame;
SEEMLIER = more respectfully;

And unfortunately, I think the OP has muddled the definition of the last!

ESSAYERS = people who 'attempt' or 'try'...
whereas
ESSAYISTS = people who write essays!

These complete the story like so:

The thugs moved CRABWISE, lurching unpredictably like those poor creatures I'd seen in the seaside marketplace, trying to cut off my retreat.

Realising I'd never make it to the gate, I instead began to climb up the scaffolding. It wasn't hard, compared to climbing the RATLINES of the old-fashioned sailing ships I had so loved as a child.

Behind the scaffolding were finely-crafted ATLANTES supporting the entablature, as though it were an ancient temple built to revere the titans; the embassy must have been built in better economic times, when national pride took precedence over austerity.

“Be sensible,” Gilgamesh shouted up at me. “The Human BLASTEMA Project is too valuable for any one corporation to own. One day a human might regrow an entire limb, like an axolotl! We just want our share of the profits! It's for the people!”

Had I been fighting for the wrong side all along? I looked down, imagined myself falling. A chill ran through me, like a WINTERLY blast of wind. I couldn't trust him, not after all I'd seen.

I balanced precariously on a short horizontal timber, securing two upright posts together. (My eidetic memory told me it was an INTERTIE, yet another example of why having a good memory is useless in a crisis...)

One of the thugs was climbing up after me. For want of anything to drop on him, I spat on his head.

“Please,” said Gilgamesh. “Act a little SEEMLIER. We are both civilised men, are we not?”

What should I do? Give up? Destroy the formula, to prevent it falling back into the wrong hands? Try to bring it back to my corporate overlords? I felt like whatever I chose, future historians would judge me in future history books, and the (ESSAYERS) of the present would try me in their essays, and find me wanting...

Solving method:

From the off I worked on the assumption that the OP had mistakenly used 'ESSAYERS' as the eighth word. I then reasoned that the seventh would probably end -IER from the context and considered both KINDLIER and SEEMLIER to be possibles. In fact I worked off KINDLIER for a long time, since this fitted with CRABLIKE for the first. Either way, the sixth was of the form I-----IE and this led me (after much Googling) to INTERTIE. A further Google session concerning axolotl (boy have I learned a lot about those!) eventually gave me BLASTEMA as the fourth, which fitted only if the seventh were SEEMLIER. This then meant the first could not be CRABLIKE after all - but everything else was fitting so well! That was the point at which I learned that CRABWISE was a real (and perfectly fitting) word...

With over half of the grid now filled, I then found ATLANTES (yes, Google), and WINTERLY (simple definition) and it was a simple search on the Internet to find the missing second letter in RATLINES. The puzzle was now complete!